"The spirit we have, not the work we do, is
what makes us important to the people around us."

A Benedictine Sister of Erie,
Joan Chittister is a best-selling author and well-known international
lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women's issues, and
contemporary spirituality in the Church and in society. She presently serves
as the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner
organization of the United Nations, facilitating a worldwide network of
women peace builders, especially in the Middle East. A speech communications
theorist, Sister Joan's most recent books include, The Tent of Abraham
(Beacon Press) and The Ten Commandments (Orbis Books). Her 2005 book The Way
We Were won a Catholic Press Award this spring: her seventh award from CPA. She is founder and executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary
spirituality in Erie.

Upcoming
Events

Sr. Joan Chittister is
scheduled for presentations at the following:Call To Action in Milwaukee, November 3-4

Spirit and Peace Festival in Indianapolis, November 5-6

By Joan Chittister, OSB

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I found myself struggling with a question this week; When is a
revolution not a revolution? What did I decide? Answer: Im not sure. But
one thing I do know: This time, we may all be looking at one revolution that is
hiding in plain sight.

Newspapers across the country recently carried a story concerned,
ostensibly, with the rising interest of Syrian girls in the study of the
Koran.

Teenage girls, it seems, have developed madrasas, Islamic
schools, for girls as young as five years old. Other young women have created
secret study groups designed to give older girls advanced education in the
Koran.

Some writers interpret the story as sign of a sharp move away from the
established secular government in the country. They see it as simply one more
indicator of an emerging interest in the establishment of a religious state in
Syria as well as in other parts of the Muslim world. It signals for them the
kind of moment that could eventually pit proponents of Islamic theocracy
against the more pluralistic character of the secular state with its separation
of religion and the political system.

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Other writers dismiss the story entirely except to wonder why women
would be interested in any religion that counseled stoning them to death. These
readers are, apparently, completely oblivious to the fact that the whole
history of religion with women more often belies the ideals of religion -- any
religion -- than enhances them.

I figured that both interpretations, however well-founded each might be
from one particular perspective or another, may well be missing a dimension of
far greater significance than either of those. This story is about a great deal
more than religion.

Whatever their interest in the Koran as a spiritual document, Muslim
girls -- like Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Catholic girls, as well -- have
normally been denied the right to be the religious scholars, imams, rabbis,
priests or ordained monastics of their various faith communities. Just as women
were not permitted to get academic degrees in Catholic theology before the
1940s, Muslim women have also not been permitted to be imams or prayer leaders
of mixed gender congregations.

Despite the presence of women in leadership positions in the early
history of every major religion, the place of the role of women in religion is
everywhere today still a major question.

But religion is not the only thing going on in this movement of Syrian
women to appropriate the scriptures for themselves. This movement is as surely
about feminism and womens rights as it is about learning the Koran.

These are young women teaching women. In one case, a 16 year old teaches
five year olds to memorize the Koran. In another, a young 20 year old is
teaching her peers not simply to recite the verses of the Koran but to probe
their history and meaning. People mistake tradition for
religion, a young woman explains to a reporter. Men are always
saying, Women cant do that because of religion, when in fact
it is only tradition. Its important for us to study so that we will know
the difference. (Islamic Revival in Syria is Led by
Women, NYT, Aug. 29, 2006)

Clearly there is more than a catechism mentality at stake. These are
women making independent decisions about things as important as whether women
are allowed to meet together without male approval -- and teaching other women
to do the same.

Despite centuries of male norms governing womens lives, these
women are beginning to think through scriptural interpretations that have
passed for religious dictates for centuries and to interpret them differently
than men, especially in areas that affect women.

Whats more, they are doing it, they say, in order to be able to
contribute to the development of the tradition themselves, something left
almost entirely to men -- at least until now.

And, to add insult to injury, they are doing it in womens groups
for women only. The implications of such a movement as that for the development
of both society and religion are overwhelming.

First, God is becoming the property of females as well as males and, as
a result, looking less gendered, more truly spirit, by the day.

Second, this is not conservative Islam were seeing, this is
Islamic feminism, whether we recognize it or not. For those who might be
tempted to consider Islamic feminism an oxymoron, it may be time to
start thinking otherwise.

As the Arabs say, The camels nose is under the
tent, and it is neither Western nor anti-Western in its intent. It is
simply one more instance of the rising consciousness of women everywhere as
they seek to take their proper places in the world.

Its a revolution, all right, but it is changing more than the
secular government of Syria. It is changing the world everywhere.

The secret is out. Women are human beings. They are fully human. And
they intend to claim that humanity, however revered the institution that is
inclined to say no to their full presence in it.

It is more than possible, then, that were seeing two revolutions
at once. One may well be political. Maybe something is happening to government
in Syria. Maybe these groups really are the seeds of a frontal attack on
secularism and the first stirrings of an Islamist state.

But the other revolution is yet largely invisible, but growing. And it
is a great deal more important than the political one because it signals the
change of the world. Or as the Chinese proverb puts it, When sleeping
women wake, mountains will move.

From where I stand, it seems to me that we may be seeing a lot more than
we think were seeing. Shouldnt we tell somebody?